But mostly they’re dresses for tending to the bride. At the new Bella Bridesmaid shop in town, 120 different styles by 10 designers are stocked, including Vera Wang. The remodeled store opened last week across from Safeway in what previously was a Verizon Wireless store at 465 N. Santa Cruz Ave.

“They’re extremely wearable styles,” says owner Debra Chin. Most bridesmaid dresses are worn only once, a point driven home in the recent movie, 27 Dresses. Wang says she understands this all too well each time she gazes at the five bridesmaid dresses in her own closet.

At Bella Bridesmaid, dresses come in elegant fabrics like satin and shantung and, because of their style and custom fit, are wearable again and again for other special occasions. Even the bride wishing something more informal will find a suitable outfit. Dresses are made to order by the designers after a customer’s one-hour fitting appointment and are ready for delivery within 12 weeks. Besides designer Wang, the shop has exclusive arrangements with Queue of San Francisco and Alix and Kelly of Los Angeles. Prices range from $190 to $400.

After spending hours searching locally for a bridesmaid dress to wear in a wedding last July, Chin, a native New Yorker and a Los Gatos resident for the past 10 years, finally found one at Bella Bridesmaid in San Francisco. There are 30 of the stores across the United States, each independently owned.

“I tried going to the regular bridesmaid dress stores — the super stores that are too busy for good service and offer dresses that are not well made,” she recalls. Her experience convinced her that there was a need for a local Bella Bridesmaid store. So when Dell bought Evergreen, the startup where Chin spent more than two years as vice president of marketing, she seized the opportunity to make the transition to owning her own shop. With an MBA from Columbia University, Chin had worked for 10 years prior to joining Evergreen in consumer marketing, first for Pepsi-Cola, then for Sprint.

At Bella Bridesmaid, “We have one-on-one, personalized service,” she says. She’ll be getting help from apprentice, Kirsten Drew, a student at the Fashion Institute in San Francisco. Call 408.399.4649 to make an appointment on Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The store is closed Monday.

NOW FOR THE WEDDING: Chin not only dresses the women in the wedding party, she’s planning the wedding as well. Calling themselves the Wedding Architects, Chin and partner Connie Sanchez will be handling the many details involved with the event.

In her previous life, Sanchez was an event coordinator at Dell. A San Jose area native, she now resides in Felton. “We’re like yin and yang,” Chin smiles, citing the combining forces in nature that Chinese cosmologists say produce all that comes to be. The pair will work out of the Bella Bridesmaid location. Call 408.395.9598.

EVER THINK OF HANDWRITING ANALYSIS as a hiring tool? Some employers are resorting to the skill more properly termed “graphology” to aid them in weeding through a recent deluge of job applications.

Mercedes Perez of Los Gatos was told before being granted an interview for a job as an accountant that she must write a lengthy piece on unlined paper about her reasons for wanting the position and where she expected to be in the next five years. The owner of the company had hired college graduates in the past, only to find that they quit after discovering that the job didn’t measure up to their big expectations.

While she has no degree, Perez believes her years of experience in the field and her handwriting got her hired. The boss had taken a course in the subject at a local college and presumably saw something positive in her script.

“The body of one’s writing can be revealing because, unlike the practiced brand of a signature, it is spontaneous and unconscious. Together they form a psychological snapshot,” graphologists say. If the graphologists are right, Hillary Clinton is smart and tough and stays until the last dog dies, Barack Obama is an engaging bridge-builder, and John McCain takes charge and does it his way, according to Sheila Lowe of Ventura in her book Handwriting of the Famous and the Infamous.

Probably what guided the boss who hired Perez is the belief among graphologists that “the writer with a long lower zone (below the line on the paper) is usually restless and in constant need of variety and change: the longer the lower zone, the more restless the writer.” Graphologists find these people to be both job- and mate-hoppers.

It’s all just a parlor game and a hit or miss system, says David Moore of Fair Oaks, who is listed under “handwriting experts” in the local yellow pages. “Astrology would be my analogy,” he says of handwriting analysis. He emphasizes that handwriting analysts would never be allowed in a court of law to testify, unlike handwriting experts, because what the analysts preach is not science.

“Employers are asking for a lawsuit when they hire someone on the basis of handwriting. There are no scientific studies that show handwriting can determine personality,” he emphasizes. And, it might be assumed, a college degree does not guarantee a loyal employee.

IT’S SIGN-UP TIME AGAIN FOR ID TECH CAMPS. For ages 7-17, there’s a camp this summer for kids wanting hands-on tech fun. Offered locally at Stanford University, Santa Clara, UC-Berkeley and UC-Santa Cruz, the specialty summer camps offer instruction in making industry-standard 2D and 3D video games and game modeling.

Students will leave campus with a gaming portfolio, participate in late-night gaming tournaments, tour a game development studio and build robots for competition with their classmates. Classes are limited to six students per instructor. There’s a lot more to learn.

Call for particulars: prices, specials and discounts, locations and subject matter at 888.709.8324 or visit www.internaldrive.com.

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